NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

As Asia begins to adapt to the new post-pandemic normal, some economies have begun to reopen while others continue to battle on. At the same time, we also acknowledge the pandemic is a terrible human tragedy spanning the globe and sparing almost no economy. As we collectively confront and adapt to this new normal, the roles of and need for sustainable finance and impact investing could not be more critical and urgent.

Notwithstanding the lessons learned from previous epidemics such as SARS, MERS, and Ebola as well as Bill Gates’ prescient TED talk in 2015, the uneven responses of various economies to the COVID-19 pandemic point to a dire picture of what could happen to humanity if we fail to tackle the more serious threats of climate change and extreme weather events going forward.

In the immediate term, as we await for vaccines that can be produced at scale, developed and developing economies alike will continue to face unprecedented economic and public health challenges. Already we are seeing some economies begin to delay or roll-back some climate- and sustainability-related initiatives as a matter of economic survival. And there are growing concerns that stopgap solutions to jumpstart economies could stall the growth of sustainable finance.

In this virtual fireside chat, Impact Entrepreneur’s Laurie Lane-Zucker and Asia Value Advisors’ Philo Alto will discuss with our distinguished group of panellists — Leonie Kelly of Sustainable Finance Initiative, En Lee of LGT, Ronie Mak of RS Group and James Robertson of PRI — the trends and developments in growing sustainable finance in Asia in the new post-pandemic normal.

Time: 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM EDT